William Vivanco Cuban Musician
William Vivanco was born on October 6. 1975 in Santiago de Cuba and is a popular music star, composer and musician. Vivanco learned to play guitar by frequenting the Jazz Club in Santiago de Cuba called Casa de la Trova located on the city's bustling Calle Heredia. As he says, he started "stealing chords" from back then. He later made ends meet as a street busker, offering melodies in the streets of his city. He also performed with a professional children's choir. He trained his voice, learning the techniques that would enable him to develop his distinctively percussive vocal style. He also played day-long romerias and, additionally spent time at the Festival of Singers of the Americas in Guantanamo.
"Bu-lu-la-la-la, la-la-bu ..." When William Vivanco walks the streets of Havana, that's what people sing, his emblematic chorus of the song “Cimarron”, the song (and especially video) that made him a star.
"I wrote Cimarrón using funny little onomatopoeic sounds, 'bu-lu-la-la', and those sorts of things which became, at the time, a kind of a big joke," said Vivanco. The joke turned into a smash hit, even if it seems at odds with the more serious undertone of the songs lyrics about slavery and personal freedoms. The word " Cimarrón" (literally translated, "one who lives in the tops of the mountains") refers to African slaves who escaped from their Spanish masters and hid in the mountains. The song is also the story of the quest for personal freedoms of Vivanco himself.
Vivanco first went to Havana when he was 23 years old. The Bis Music label spotted him at the Santa Clara song festival and, in 2002, offered him the possibility to make his first solo album called Lo Tengo To' Pensa'o a mix of Brazilian rhythms, pop and reggae. His song and the accompanying video clip "Cimarrón" became extremely popular in Cuba.
In 2006, Vivanco recorded his second solo album, La Isla Milagrosa (the Miraculous Island), produced by Descemer Bueno and Roberto Carcassés. More recently, Vivanco has started to distance himself from his funkier, poppier tunes in favor of music that is more "Santiaguera" (from Santiago), more Cuban, more rhythmic – more traditional.
In 2003 Vivanco performed in France at Les Transmusicales de Rennes festival in northern France, then in 2004 at the Paléo Festival Nyon in Switzerland. He later performed at the Cuban night of Les Nuits de Fourvière de Lyon, and in August 2005 he performed at the Vence festival Les Nuits du Sud in France.
Discography
2002: William Vivanco - Lo Tengo To' Pensa'o
2006: William Vivanco - La Isla Milagrosa
2009: William Vivanco - El Mundo Está Cambia'o
Official Website http://www.williamvivanco.com